Yes, stephen. Its been like that for a while, ever since i was out of power 1a months, 15 months ago. What was hoped by the establishment which removed me, what they hoped was that the party would just fizzle away. And normally, it happens when youre out of power, youre out of power for quite a while. But instead, what happened . The most unusual thing in this country that the partys popularity kept growing and that in the by elections that took place, out of 37 by elections, my party swept 30 of them and this is despite the establishment backing the government parties. So, since then, this its the attempts are being made to knock me out of the game. I had two Assassination Attempts on me. And apart from that, now, i have close to my double century almost 200 cases and the whole attempt is to either imprison me or disqualify me, or both. Yeah, you talk about being knocked out of the game. Isnt the reality, now that there are these pretty much 200 cases against you which include a whole
News. And now, in a change of programming, Stephen Sackur speaks to the former Prime Minister of pakistan, imran khan, in an interview recorded in lahore, on wednesday. Welcome to hardtalk. Im Stephen Sackur. How grave is the risk of pakistan spiralling into political and Security Chaos . Terror attacks continue to impose a heavy toll whilst the nation braces for a potentially destabilising election season. And at the heart of the political turbulence, my guest today, former Prime Minister imran khan, currently facing close to 200 charges which threaten his pti partys ability to mount an electoral challenge. Has pakistans populist political star been outmanoeuvred by the generals who once backed him . Imran khan, in lahore, pakistan, welcome to hardtalk. From the outside, mr khan, it looks as though a legal noose is tightening around your neck. Does it feel that way to you . Yes, stephen. Its been like that for a while, ever since i was out of power 1a months, 15 months ago. What was h
Does it feel that way to you . Yes, stephen. Its been like that for a while, ever since i was out of power 1a months, 15 months ago. What was hoped by the establishment which removed me, what they hoped was that the party would just fizzle away. And normally it happens when youre out of power, youre out of power for quite a while. But instead, what happened . The most unusual thing in this country that the partys popularity kept growing, and that in the by elections that took place, out of 37 by elections, my party swept 30 of them. And this is despite the establishment backing the government parties. So since then, attempts are being made to knock me out of the game. I had two Assassination Attempts on me. And apart from that, now i have close to my double century almost 200 cases. And the whole attempt is to either imprison me or disqualify me or both. Yeah, you talk about being knocked out of the game. Isnt the reality, now that there are these pretty much 200 cases against you, whi
The elections because we knew we had won free and fair elections. isn t the truth, though, that you believed after you lost that vote of confidence in 2022, you believed you could use people power to force the army to come back to you, in essence, and you were wrong? and going back to what happened in may 2023, when your supporters went to the streets, they committed that violence, including against key military infrastructure. you basically crossed a red line a red line that even supporters of your own pti party, even former friends and colleagues in your government say is on you. it s your responsibility. to quote your former defence minister pervez khattak, he says, all of the political representatives of my new party hold imran khan responsible for the tragedy of may ninth . he said, imran khan s
The elections because we knew we had won free and fair elections. isn t the truth, though, that you believed, after you lost that vote of confidence in 2022, you believed you could use people power to force the army to come back to you, in essence, and you were wrong? and going back to what happened in may 2023, when your supporters went to the streets, they committed that violence, including against key military infrastructure. you basically crossed a red line, a red line that even supporters of your own pti party, even former friends and colleagues in your government say is on you. it s your responsibility. to quote your former defence minister pervez khattak, he says, all of the political representatives of my new party hold imran khan responsible for the tragedy of may ninth.